Robert Boswell named sole internal finalist for CU-Boulder vice chancellor for diversity post

University of Colorado Boulder Provost Russell L. Moore today announced that a search committee has named Robert "Bob" Boswell the sole internal finalist for the post of vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement.

"I want to thank the committee and its chair, Associate Vice Chancellor for Research Patricia Rankin, for its hard work and its selection of Bob Boswell as our sole finalist," said Moore. "Bob's long ties to CU-Boulder faculty and staff, his historical commitment to serving underrepresented students, and his willingness to work with all campus constituents make him a strong choice for vice chancellor."

Boswell will meet on Dec. 14 with campus constituent groups to outline his vision for the position, and Moore will solicit feedback from the groups on Boswell's candidacy following the meetings.

Boswell has been occupying the post since July 2010 in an interim capacity. He is a professor of molecular, cellular and developmental biology with a long and distinguished career at CU-Boulder.

He became an assistant professor in MCDB in 1986 and a professor in 1991. In addition, he was a teaching and graduate research assistant while completing his doctorate at CU-Boulder from 1975 to 1981.

He was a Howard Hughes Medical Institute Investigator from 1994 to 1999 while retaining his CU-Boulder faculty appointment. Prior to returning to Boulder after graduate school, Boswell was a staff fellow with the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences at the Research Triangle Park in North Carolina from 1982 to 1986 and a Damon Runyon-Walter Winchell Postdoctoral Fellow at Indiana University in Bloomington from 1981 to 1982.

Boswell became the principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health Initiative for Maximizing Student Development, or IMSD, in 2003. The IMSD program encourages educational institutions with fully developed research programs to initiate or expand innovative programs to improve the academic and research capabilities of underrepresented minority students.

Boswell earned a bachelor's degree in biopsychology from Marietta College in Ohio before earning his doctorate in molecular, cellular and developmental biology from CU-Boulder in 1981.

The vice chancellor for diversity, equity and community engagement oversees CU-Boulder's total diversity efforts, including recruitment and retention of students and faculty, campus climate issues and developing best practices to promote diversity within the academic, professional and social environment of the university.